E - Uses of Rainforests

While the natural deciduous forests of Europe and North America have been cleared almost to extinction, large areas of tropical rainforests remain. Products from the rainforest are used for furniture, medicine and food.

Human uses of tropical rainforests:

• farming - cattle ranching has replaced slash and burn. The land is burnt and the ranchers do not care about expensive timber they just want the fresh grass fpr their cattle
• logging - for expensive hardwoods such as teak, mahogany and golden oakheart. These trees are often spread out throughout the forest, the surrounding trees then end up being felled as well
• mining - underneath the tropical rainforest there are large deposits of gold, tin and cobalt
• settlement - the population in many countries is growing rapidly and they need new settlements to house the population. This means the rainforest ends up being destroyed as roads and services have to be brought into the new settlement
• scientific research - the rainforest has yielded cures for many illnesses and there are still many new animal species yet to be discovered
• energy resources - the Amazon rainforest is full of rivers where Hydro Electric Power can be generated
• tourism - new wildlife reserves are being set up in the rainforest
• indigenous people - they have lived in the rainforest all their lives and use the rainforest in a sustainable way

The effects of human uses of rainforests:

• loss of indigenous plant and animal species
• soils- after a large area is cleared, the surface is exposed to the full force of the often daily, and always heavy, tropical downpours. These erode the topsoil and wash it away into rivers. There is less organic matter in the soil to hold back the water as it seeps downwards, so leaching increases. As a result most of the soil's minerals are quickly removed
• hydrology (water) - with less trees in the soil the rain waters flows more quickly into the rivers which can result in flooding

The need for management of forests: